Articles with Skill Building

New Seasons – New Opportunities

New Seasons – New Opportunities

Our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies are preparing for a new season of learning and new opportunities to hone their genealogical research skills. The beginning of a new month brings another rotation of online courses starting on September 6th. Check our current Course Calendar here. As we head into the last Quarter of 2021, it is time to look back to the goals we set in January 2021. At the beginning of a brand-new year, we are ready for new genealogical opportunities! We make a plan and step forward with confidence and optimism. What did you discover? Were your genealogical goals realistic? Which goals did you choose to work on this year? Have you accomplished some of them already? Have you forgotten some of them? It is necessary to reassess your goals often and track your progress throughout the year. Make a list of which of your research objectives are still to be completed. Then set new revised goals for the remainder of this year. You still have opportunity to accomplish your objectives, but you must plan your time wisely. Did you have educational goals for 2021? Have you covered the topics you wanted to pursue? Books and webinars are valuable resources to be educate and build your knowledge base. However, some topics require more in-depth study. Is online education required to reach that goal? Check our course list to find the courses covering that very specific topic. There is still time to register and complete your 2021 goals!…

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The National Institute on Social Media

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers over 230 online courses designed to assist family history researchers in all levels of genealogy education. Whether you are just beginning your research journey, or you are looking to build your skills at a professional level, you are sure to find a course of interest. Visit our website for a complete list of online courses offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Check our Course Calendar here. The National Institute provides a variety of Packages, allowing students to customize their genealogy education plan. Our Certificate in Genealogical Studies Programs include courses for various Record Groups for a specific country. We currently offer 12 Certificate Programs. Visit our website for more information, or email the office directly. Besides our Blog, The National Institute for Genealogical Studies provides various ways for you to stay in touch with us on Social Media platforms. You can Follow us on: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. *Note: Please be aware our social media accounts are monitored regularly, but NOT 24/7. Follow The National Institute on Facebook To follow us on Facebook, you must be a member. To join, go to Facebook and sign up for a free account. Find us on Facebook and click on the Like button to follow our page. You will find information about our upcoming courses, as well as our free monthly virtual meetings. Follow us on Twitter Once signed into your Twitter account, search for us on Twitter by our Twitter name @GeneaStudies. On our Twitter page, click on the Follow button to subscribe to our tweets. Not a member of…

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Focused for Success

August is upon us and our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies are preparing for the next round of courses beginning on August 2nd. You still have a few days to join them. Check out the complete list of our 230+ courses here. There is so much more to discover! Registering for our online courses allows you to pursue your genealogical education in a format that is adaptable to your schedule and availability. Courses have a start date and a deadline for completion; however, you can set your own pace for coursework within that timeframe. Courses can be scheduled together or spaced apart. This allows you to complete courses individually or towards a certificate program based on the work load you can carry at that time. We have full-time students as well as students who are employed full-time and working on their courses at the same time. Most certificate programs require 40 courses to be completed – how long you take is up to you. Focused for Success Be aware that independent study takes discipline and focus! The definition of “Focused” (Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/focused. Accessed 01 Aug 2021) gives us some guidelines. It requires us to have our mind fixed on our education goals and not scattered in many directions. When our efforts are concentrated on a specific research stream, we will gain a comprehensive and thorough overview of each topic through the course materials. In other words, we need to be actively engaged – the opposite of…

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How Are Your 2021 Goals?

Can you believe that we are passed the halfway mark for 2021? The Winter Season will be settling in for those who are in the Southern Hemisphere. Summer Vacations and Lazy Days are ahead for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere – Except for some of our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies! They will be opening their July online genealogy courses to maximize their time and seize the opportunity to advance their genealogy educational prospects. How are You Doing with Your 2021 Goals? Remember those genealogy goals you made back in January 2021? It’s time to stop and look back over the last six months and see what you have accomplished. Have you completed some of them? Are some goals still “a work in progress”? Or maybe you looked at the list and were surprized by some goals that you had forgotten about. Goals are important to keep us on task. They define our plan of action and help us to use our time efficiently. They must also be practical. Goals that are too big and require a long-term commitment should be broken down into doable chunks. This will give us a sense of accomplishment as we can cross them off our checklist! Evaluate Your Education Plan We must also take time to evaluate, not only what has been completed, but what is still incomplete. Make a plan for the second half of 2021: monthly, quarterly (3 months) and to the end of the year (6…

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Always Learning – Always Building Research Skills

In many places, June means that schools are winding down for another year and summer vacation is almost here! In other parts of the world, winter is looming closer every day. Our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies know that when it comes to genealogy, we are always learning, no matter which month is showing on the current calendar. There are always more courses on our wish list. Always Learning The list of topics for our genealogical studies should always include the places of origin for our ancestors; but researching our family history soon reaches much farther than just our ethnic origins. Our ancestors’ lives were more than the dates and places of the family’s births, marriages and deaths; it included historical events, and the hundreds of people they encountered along the way. Our goal is to learn as much as we can about their lives and the things which impacted their families. Always Building Research Skills How can we accomplish our genealogy goals? We must build our research skills. We simply do not know what we do not know. If we lack basic methodology skills, our research can take twice as long, repeating the same steps over again, and still have important elements missing, such as source citations or complete transcriptions of documents. When we are unaware of special record collections, we won’t know to access the information they contain. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers quality online education with over 230+ courses to choose from.…

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